Virgil Lewis Johnson (December 29, 1935 – February 24,
2013) was an African American deejay, formerly at radio station KDAV in
Lubbock.
Virgil Johnson was the lead singer of the Velvets, a
vocal quintet from Odessa, West Texas. They are best remembered for their 1961
hit "Tonight (Could Be The Night)", which peaked at # 26 on the
Billboard pop charts. On that song the Velvets can be heard chanting
"doo-wop" behind lead singer Johnson, one of the first uses of the
phrase in a song. Still, the Velvets were not really a doo-wop group. Their
sound was highly polished and the backing usually included strings.
Johnson was born in Cameron, the seat of Milam County in
east central Texas. The family relocated to Lubbock, and Johnson graduated
there from the historically black Dunbar High School, an institution known for
its outstanding academics and reputation within the community. Later he would
be principal of his alma mater and obtained a graduate degree from Texas Tech
University in Lubbock. He was teaching eighth-grade English at Blackshear
Junior High School in Odessa, the seat of Ector County, in 1959, when he
recruited four of his students to form a singing group. They were Mark Prince
(bass), Clarence Rigsby (tenor), Robert Thursby (first tenor), and William
Solomon (baritone).
The quintet began to perform at school sock-hops and
campus functions, with Johnson as lead singer. In 1960 they impressed Roy
Orbison, who heard them whilst visiting Odessa, and recommended the group to
Fred Foster, the owner of Monument Records and the producer of Roy's big hit at
that time, "Only the Lonely". Foster signed the group and came up
with the name The Velvets. In fact, he decided it should be the Velvets
featuring Virgil Johnson because there was another group called the Velvets,
years before. They had a song out called "I" on Bobby Robinson's Red
Robin label.
In 1960, the singers impressed the native Texan Roy
Orbison, who heard them while he was visiting Odessa. Orbison recommended the
five to Fred Foster, the owner of Monument Records in Nashville, Tennessee, who
had produced Orbison's hit "Only the Lonely". Foster originated the
name "The Velvets featuring Virgil Johnson" to distinguish the five
from an earlier group called simply "The Velvets". The group recorded
"That Lucky Old Sun"/"Time And Again" and "Tonight
(Could Be The Night)"/"Spring Fever". Orbison wrote the two
B-sides, but "Tonight" was the work of Johnson. Their accompaniment
came from Boots Randolph and Floyd Cramer.
Some of them were
quite good, but there were no further chart entries and the group called it a
day and went back to a Texas they had never really left. Johnson resumed
teaching. He retired from his job as principal of Lubbock's historically black
Dunbar High School (1985–1993) and as principal of Dunbar-Struggs Middle School
(1968–1984). In 1993, Dunbar became Magnet Junior High School Science Academy.
In Lubbock, Johnson was a deejay on Radio KSEL before he switched to KDAV after
his retirement from education. Clarence Rigsby, meanwhile, died in a car crash
in 1978.
Johnson was inducted into the West Texas Walk of Fame in
1997, along with Glenna Goodacre and Dan Blocker. In 1994, Johnson was inducted
into the Buddy Holly West Texas Walk of Fame, renamed in 2006 as the West Texas
Hall of Fame, located at Seventh Street and Avenue Q in Lubbock.
Over the weekend of March 15, 2008, Johnson and another
KDAV deejay, Bud Andrews, were featured on Bob Phillips' Texas Country Reporter
syndicated television program. In 2008, he was listed among the "100 Most
Influential People" from Lubbock, as part of the city centennial
observation.
Virgil died on February 24, 2013 at the Covenant Hospital in Lubbock, TX. He was 77. (Info mainly edited from Wikipedia)
1 comment:
For “The Complete Velvets” go here:
http://www75.zippyshare.com/v/58377549/file.html
01 Tonight (Could Be The Night)
02 Time And Again
03 Spring Fever
04 That Lucky Old Sun
05 Laugh
06 Lana
07 The Love Express
08 Don't Let Him Take My Baby
09 Let The Good Times Roll
10 The Light Goes On, The Light Goes Off
11 Crying In The Chapel
12 Dawn
13 Here Comes That Song Again
14 Nightmare
15 If
16 Let The Fool Kiss You
17 Baby The Magic Is Gone
18 Be Ever Mine
19 You Done Me Bad
20 Kiss Me
21 Alicia
22 Bird Dog
23 My Love
24 Who Has The Right
25 I'm Trusting In You
26 Almost But Not Quite
27 Husbands And Wives
28 I Can Feel It
29 Poison Love
30 That's Out Of My Line
A big thank you to Maria @ Jukebox City for link
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